Alex Ovechkin, Capitals are not what they used to be

Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals are not what they used to be

OTTAWA — Old-timer hockey players know this warmup routine.

The long, languid strides, slowly weaving back and forth to loosen up ancient, creaking body parts. Skating at a fraction of one’s former speed. Cutting the warmup short to save a little something for the game.

Sadly, this isn’t an old-timer on the ice at Scotiabank Place on game day morning, it’s Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, a 26-year-old superstar who should be at the peak of his powers.

This was just before noon, local time, on Wednesday.

Clearly, Ovechkin was favouring something as he tested his motor ability just two days after mysteriously missing chunks of playing time in Washington’s 5-0 disaster against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.

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Capitals head coach Dale Hunter would concur with Ovechkin that the Gr8 would be a game-time decision. Hunter termed the malady “lower body,” but Ovechkin told us he didn’t get hurt against the Hurricanes.

As it turned out, 90 minutes before game time the Capitals announced they would be icing an Ovie-free lineup against Ottawa, and so the troubled Caps, picked by many to finish first in the Eastern Conference, carried on without him, plunging in the other direction.

The Senators took a 4-0 lead midway through the second period and went on to win 5-2.

Not having seen him since his last visit to Ottawa on Dec. 7, we were shocked at the diminished figure before us, ashen-faced, flecks of grey throughout his brown hair. Grey in his mid-twenties? When did that happen?

Ovechkin used to come in here and wow us just with the energy he showed in practice sessions, let alone the games, jumping, weaving, the trademark yellow skate laces dangling from the blue Capitals hockey pants, a trend that caught on.

To see Ovechkin with so little energy, one suspected he was ill with some form of flu. Maybe it was a combination of flu and lower-body injury. Whatever the case, the Capitals pushed hard out of the gate without him but couldn’t beat Senators goaltender Craig Anderson, and were soon victim of the Senators recent magic.

Erik Karlsson (get that man a contract) continues to raise the bar on points by a defenceman this season, picking up two more before the first period was over, and then another in the second to establish a franchise record for assists by a defenceman.

Karlsson’s performance was reminiscent of a young Mike Green with the Capitals, back in happier times. These days, the Caps kiss away opportunity with such frequency they could qualify for the Kiss Cam.

Despite dropping five of their six previous games, Washington had a chance to pull even with Florida atop the weak Southeast Division if the Caps could have handled the Senators, once a given.

After the Hurricanes spanking, the Senators were only too happy to pile on further embarrassment.

Gone is the Capitals team that could just blast its way out of a slump on the strong arms of Ovechkin, Alex Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Green.

This group seems caught between the fire-wagon style of old, menacing in the regular season but not playoff worthy, and the find-religion switch to defence that started with Bruce Boudreau last season. The defensive push has been intensified with the arrival of Dale Hunter, who replaced Boudreau on Nov. 28 but arrived in Ottawa with just 17 wins in 37 games.

Incredibly, the Capitals are still talking about adapting.

“It’s taken some time to adjust to a new system,” said Green, who was playing just his third game since Jan. 7 due to injury. “We still don’t have a grasp of it.”

Might be time to grasp it pretty soon or this season will be a complete wipeout.

The Capitals, who scored 313 goals just two seasons ago, are on pace to be about a hundred goals behind that output. Businesses have been known to shut down with lesser production drops.

Ovechkin is on pace for a 34-goal season, which would be his worst ever if he weren’t coming off a 32-goal campaign in 2010-11.

It’s obvious that US$66-million, Washington’s payroll, doesn’t buy what it used to.

Capitals owner Ted Leonsis concurs, ripping his own team in a blog post this week for coming up small, just when circumstances demanded they play big.

Brooks Laich, one of the true character figures in the Capitals room, says not to underestimate the blows from having Backstrom and Green out for long periods of time.

Remarkably, Backstrom still leads the Capitals in assists (29) despite being out of the Washington lineup since Jan. 3 (22 games). That says as much about the Capitals without Backstrom as it does about Backstrom.

“Take Spezza and Karlsson out of (the Senators’) lineup and see how they do,” Laich said.

The 10th place Capitals’ spell over Ottawa, 13-3-3 from the start of 2007-08 until the drop of the puck Wednesday, looks to be over. Mercifully, their season soon will be, too.

“I still think our best hockey is yet to come,” Laich was saying Wednesday, which isn’t saying much, come to think of it.